Effect of the hyperbolic photon mode on a proximate material
arXiv:2606.16665
Abstract
The hyperbolic mode (HM) refers to a polariton mode where the dielectric function is negative in some direction of propagation. Within a frequency window the light occupies a greatly expanded region in momentum space. We compute the photon density of states and find that the zero point fluctuation in the RMS electric field can reach , comparable to the largest field used in pump probe experiments in the THz scale. The HM in hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN) has been under intense study and we consider placing a material directly on top of or sandwiched between hBN crystals. We consider two examples. First the material is a metal and we calculate the modification of the quasi-particle spectral weight, Fermi velocity and pairing interaction. Next we consider a material that is close to the Mott transition. We find that a substantial shift in the metal-insulator transition is possible, but the effect decays rapidly with distance, so that only a few monolayers are affected. We provide estimates and suggestions for a number of materials of interest.
This version supercedes the earlier withdrawn version and also replaces the content of arXiv:2606.16674 which has been withdrawn